what makes a good writer?

Well, I have to wonder about the world we live in. I mean, we work ourselves to death doing things we don't like so we can get that job we do like. Then when we get it, we wonder why we wanted to ruin a perfectly good hobby that relaxed us and made us feel good about ourselves by making it a job.

Kathy Guisewhite (I probably spelled her name wrong) once said she loved doing the "Kathy" comic strip when it was just a hobby. It was her way of relaxing after a stressful day. Now that the strip is her job, it doesn't relax her like it used to.

Now that writing is both a career and a calling, I still have to write, but I just don't really feel like writing the stuff I'm supposed to. It seems like cheating somehow to make money off your passion, and maybe that's why I tend to block myself when I have to get something done that brings in money.

Right now I'm supposed to be writing a synopsis for one of my novels for an editor. I really want the editor to look at the novel, but I really don't want to write the synopsis. It's kind of a catch 22. Every time I sit down with the synopsis in front of me, another book I'm working on pushes itself forward and blocks me from thinking about the synopsis.

Most writers call that a discipline problem. I guess they're right. Even at my best I always have at least 2 or 3 books in progress at the same time. I was brought up doing more than one thing at once, so it translates in my concentration.

So, here's the question... Is a good writer a writer who can write interesting stuff, or is it a writer who can make themself write about what they want to write about when they want to? I know I've seen some of the local bestselling authors struggle with a page a day when they aren't in the mood to write the novel, but they still do it. (yeah there are bestselling authors in Raleigh. I know of at least 3 in my romance writers group alone!).

Well, I for one am not sure the answer. If the ability to write interesting stuff makes you a good writer, then i like to think I'm a good writer. If the ability to make yourself write things you don't want to when you don't want to do it is what it takes, then I'm a pretty lousy writer.

But either way, I have toget back to the synopsis, and now that I have this blog set up, that's one less thing on my mind to distract me.